Today I want us to look at the life of Eve in Genesis chapter three and examine what she did wrong and how she got to this point of failure. It is so easy to blame the fall of mankind on Eve, but her failure did not start with her – it started with Satan.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
-Genesis 3:1-6
Humans can think they are pretty slick. We tend to brag when we pull a so called “fast one” on someone else. But according to scripture, Satan is slicker than any human being out there. He is able to pull a fast one on us better than we ever could. And that’s exactly what he did to Eve. But notice how Satan fooled eve. He started with the question “Did God really say?” Satan didn’t start out his trick by straight out telling eve not to believe God. He didn’t preach to her or give a passionate speech about why he thinks God is wrong. He asked her a simple question; “Did God really say?” He did this to get Eve to question her own faith in God and she fell for it. Eve’s failure to obey God came from a root problem – doubt. Eve’s failure didn’t start when she took the fruit, her failure began when she doubted the voice of God. But her lack of trust in God was not created by her own mind, it was planted like a seed by the enemy as she encountered Satan.
How often does Satan do that with us?
God’s word will say one thing and then we have this thought placed in our minds asking, did God really say this? Or we will hear the Holy Spirit telling us to do something but then we second guess it as we ask ourselves; Did God really tell me this?
The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
-Matthew 8:25-27
Jesus uses this phrase “you of little faith” five different times in the New Testament and it means; lacking confidence in God and/or Jesus. Eve’s biggest problem wasn’t the sin of eating forbidden fruit, her biggest problem was her lack of confidence in the God who created her. God is all-knowing and he knew what was best for Eve. He created her heart, and he knew best how to protect it. But Eve allowed Satan to take away her confidence in God as the enemy filled her mind with doubt.
Satan is very slick with his questions. He knows how to ask just the right questions in order to place doubt in our minds. That is his goal. Not only to lead us into sin but to get us to doubt God. Satan wants to break our trust in God! It would be like Satan coming up to my child and asking, did your mom really say not to drink the bleach? Or did your mom really say not to eat the dishwasher detergent pods? Satan knows it is poison. He not only wants to deceive us into doing things that are harmful for us, but he also wants us to doubt God’s protection.
Just like parents want to protect their children from harm and will often say no to things for the sake of their protection, God wants to protect his children from harm. God truly knows what is best for us but Satan wants to trick us into doubting God. Satan wants to take away our trust in God. He wants to deceive us into believing that God isn’t really a loving father who knows what is best for us. Satan does this best by asking us; “Did God really say?”
But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
-2 Corinthians 11:3
How is Satan trying to deceive you in your walk with God? In what area of your life is Satan asking you; Did God really say?
